


I Knew You (Once upon a dream)

by bladeangel



Series: Witchertober 2020 [6]
Category: The Hexer (2002), The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: But you don't need to know anything about it, Day 6 Found, Dimension Travel, Gen, Post-Episode: S01E06 Rare Species, Regrets, The Author Regrets Nothing, This is a purely self-indulgent fic, Witchertober (The Witcher), also Geralt having a wholeass gay crush on Hexer!Jaskier?, characters and plot points from The Hexer are mentioned, its more likely than you think!, minimal angst, no beta we die like stregobore should have, witchertober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27228031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bladeangel/pseuds/bladeangel
Summary: The Jaskier Geralt found singing in a small no name tavern a few days east of Posada, was not the same Jaskier that he had known for nearly twenty-five years. He had found Jaskier, safe and singing and smiling- at him-, but this was not his Jaskier.Or: Geralt gets a glimpse at what could have been.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: Witchertober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955281
Comments: 3
Kudos: 83





	I Knew You (Once upon a dream)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Witchertober 2020! Day 6 which was 'Found'. I am really big fan of the Polish Hexer series, so i was really keen to write more fics including it! It's alot softer and more melancholy than The Witcher and there are alot of differences in how plot points go. You don't really need to know anything about the polish series to understand this fic, but I would strongly suggest you look up pictures of Zbigniew Zamachowski as Jaskier! He makes for a wonderful Jaskier and wrote and sang several poems for the end credits to the 2002 show! Also Hexer!Jaskier is canonically part-elf!

The Jaskier Geralt found singing in a small no name tavern a few days east of Posada -some two years after the dragon hunt- was not the same Jaskier that he had known for nearly twenty-five years. And while this was also metaphorically true, for the charming fresh-faced troubadour Geralt had once known had indeed grown into a cynical spy and soldier of great skill and integrity. It was also true in a more literal sense.

The bard that stood before him carried Jaskier’s scent, a masculine tang of salt and wood mixed with a quality that was intrinsically Jaskier in a way no doppler or mage could hope to mimic. The song he sang, too, carried a timbre and weight that Geralt had only ever heard Jaskier accomplish, though unlike most of his popular songs, this one rang sweet and sombre though the small room. The lute this Jaskier carried was of fine elven make, untouched save for a few small scratches that littered the body of the instrument.

But at the same time Geralt knew this was not his own Jaskier. This Jaskier was shorter and softer, older in body and soul than the Jaskier he remembered. This Jaskier had brown eyes and brown hair and a gentle face. His voice carried at a lower register, sweeter and more genuine than the Jaskier he knew would have ever allowed himself to be outside the certainty of complete isolation – though he never realised that Geralt could _always_ hear him. The lute was of elven make, yet it was unfamilliar to him, none of scars he knew it had earned over the course of twenty-odd years defending his non-existent honour. Most damning of all was that smile, that fond, loving curve of chapped lips, the soft crinkle at the corner of laughing eyes directed towards him, a friendship Geralt no longer deserved.

He had found Jaskier, safe and singing and smiling- at _him_ -, but this was not his Jaskier.

“Geralt, my friend,” Jaskier greeted him with a fond smile -this Jaskier had a dimple on one side- “it is good to see you. And you as well, little one”. The bard ducked his head to meet his child’s eyes, soft and paternal in a way that Geralt could never hope to replicate.

“Not your friend.” he grunted, shifting to further shield his child, too close to Khaer Morhen to risk being spotted.

 _‘Not your Geralt’,_ he meant.

“You are Geralt, and Geralt is always my friend.”

“So you-“

“Realise that I am far from home? Yes.” Jaskier said, a wry smile on his face.

“Know how to get back?”

“Not really. No.” Jaskier laughed, as if being stranded in another world were a simple romp, “I thought I would walk the path until fate saw fit to intervene.”.

“The path isn’t for humans.”, it was an instinctive denial, nothing held Jaskier, any version of the soulful poet, to a life of dirt and death and blood.

“Oh? I must be a snail then, my friend.” Another smile, another inside joke.

That smile held a world of experiences, of jokes that Geralt could never hope to understand. Though this Jaskier seemed more than happy to try and include the two of them. His heart burned at the thought of his own Jaskier so, sharing jokes and experiences and memories with his human friends. A twinkle in his eyes as he invited them to share in his laughter, safe and sound in some court or academy.

“He used to come sing at my name day celebrations.”

“Is that so, little one?”, that same gentle tone, on this Jaskier’s silver tongue the term served as an endearment rather than a dismissal. “I regret that we did not know of each other until your father had claimed you.”

“Weren’t you there for the banquet?”

“I’m afraid not. Though your father spoke of it to me when we next met.”

“Oh. We didn’t know each other at all?”

“I knew of you, dear one, your father went to great lengths searching for you.”

“Because I was his child surprise?”

“Because he wanted to save the little girl who was his friend and cared for him while he healed at the temple of Melitele.”

“Oh.”

Another one of those gentle smiles, it felt like they should have run out by now. With how often this Jaskier smiled at them.

“We have a room, share with us!”

“Shouldn’t we ask your father first?”

…

“Hmm.”

* * *

After introductions had been made, as such, the three of them has spent the rest of the night in their room: where Jaskier regaled Ciri with stories of the Geralt from his world and their adventures. His voice never strayed from the sweet affectionate tone he held when speaking to either of them, the bard sang short verses during particularly tense or triumphant moments. Yet Geralt could read between the lines of what went unsaid during the course of these stories - the destruction of an entire temple, of several villages, the slaughter of refugees- spoken in a smooth practiced voice, as if Jaskier was used to recounting these tales in a more child friendly manner.

Eventually, the excitement of Jaskier’s tales wore off and Geralt was able to coax Ciri to sleep, his hands as close to tender as the Witcher could make them for the sake of his grieving child surprise. Jaskier stayed up sometime longer, tuning his lute and humming soft lullabies, until he deemed Ciri sound asleep. The bard turned to Geralt then, intent to talk, Jaskier met his grunts and growls with good humour and when Geralt lashed out -nearly waking Ciri in the process- he favoured the Witcher with an arch look and simple words before he turned in himself.

Geralt burned with shame at his actions, at the way this other Jaskier cut through to the heart of the matter – so much like his own- yet left Geralt to himself when he made his unwillingness to discuss things clear. Geralt couldn’t bear to talk to him, this other Jaskier, soft and sweet and so, so, gentle with his child surprise, not when he realised that this other Jaskier had never known of Ciri until Cintra fell, until he had claimed his child of surprise. 

This Jaskier had not been there.

It was a revelation that Geralt could not keep his mind from returning to, again and again over as night melted into day the moon began its decent. This Jaskier had not been the one to drag an unwilling Geralt to Pavetta’s betrothal feast, where he had claimed the law of surprise and gained a child he then spent the next thirteen years avoiding.

And yet this other Geralt had Ciri, who Jaskier referred to as her father, a father who knew his child surprise as more than a promise from destiny, as a friend. A daughter who had, according to this other Jaskier stories, snowball fights with her father and livid safe in the depth of Dol Blathana with Geralt, Jaskier and an entire community of non-humans, far removed from the grasping hand of calamity and war that seemed to follow them here.

It was with a sinking sense of guilt that Geralt wondered what other events in his life this Jaskier had never been involved in, which of he’s many mistakes had occurred the same: in this other world where this other Geralt and his bard met only occasionally but cherished each other all the more for it?

How many of his many misfortunes were the work of Geralt’s own hand?

Geralt may have found his answers that very night, hidden between the lines of children’s tales. His answers lived in the crinkles in the corner of a poets eyes, in the heavy weight of regret that had sat upon Geralt’s breast since he had made his down a dragon mountain. Alone.

**Author's Note:**

> in case anyones wondering heres some of what happens in the Hexer'Verse. Hexer!Jaskier isn't there for the banquet (Duny, Pavetta and Calanthe practically force Geralt to claim the law of surprise while being ude to him). The djinn incident never happens (Geralt instead meets Yennefer during a generic injury). Geralt and Yennefer break up because she cheats on him with Istredd. Hexer!Geralt gets to know Ciri during a stay at the temple to recover from injury! its super cute and they play in the snow as well! Renfri in this verse gets saved by Geralt as a princess early on and then goes on to become a mercernary who kills non-humans in super horrible ways and goes to blaviken to get at stregobore.  
> Also the snail comment is a reference to a conversation the Hexer!Geralt and Hexer!Jaskier have. You can find screen caps and gigs of it on tumblr and youtube!  
> And this is just the cliff notes version! please give Hexer a go! its wonderful!!!


End file.
